Free Speech, International

Oh Canada: Trudeau’s Government Condemns Cuba Over Free Speech As Canada Cracks Down on Free Speech

The Trudeau government went public this week with a condemnation of Cuba over its lack of free speech protections as the government deployed unprecedented powers to crackdown on Canadian truckers and their supporters. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has invoked the 1988 Emergencies Act for the first time to freeze accounts of truckers and contributions by other Canadian citizens. It was entirely unnecessary and, while the media is largely supportive of Trudeau, the powers have been condemned by civil liberties groups in Canada.

As noted by the Miami Herald, it is rare for Trudeau’s government to criticize Cuba where Canada has considerable economic interests. Canada not only pumps millions of dollars into the economy through tourism but Canadian companies hold lucrative mining contracts on the island.

The condemnation was triggered by Cuba’s outrageous sentencing of protesters from last July to up to 20 years in prison. The government was clearly correct in expressing its outrage. However, there was something jarring in the Trudeau government then adding “Canada strongly advocates for freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly free from intimidation. We stand with the people of Cuba in their aspiration for #democracy.”

The 1988 law is meant to address the greatest national threats when existing laws are insufficient. However, there are ample laws allowing the clearing of roads and bridges. Trudeau is using the Act to intimidate not just the truckers but anyone who supports them. That includes sending lists of names to banks for accounts to be frozen and going to court to prevent donations from reaching the truckers.

Ironically, it was Trudeau’s father, who used the predecessor to the Act for the first time in peacetime to suspend civil liberties. Former prime minister Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act on Oct. 16, 1970, after separatist terrorists calling themselves the Front de libération du Québec kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross and Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte. The prior Act had never been used in peacetime and only twice before during prior wars.

Justin Trudeau, like his father, has never been a strong supporter of free speech. Indeed, he has more often championed its limitations. He previously declared that “freedom of expression is not without limits . . . we owe it to ourselves to act with respect for others and to seek not to arbitrarily or unnecessarily injure those with whom we are sharing a society and a planet.”

He has long been criticized for his anti-free speech policies, including his move to amend the Criminal Code and the Canadian Human Rights Act to criminalize any “communication that expresses detestation or vilification of an individual or group of individuals on the basis of a prohibited ground of discrimination.” That regulation of speech was criticized for its vague terms to prevent “social media platforms, [from being] used to threaten, intimidate, bully and harass people, or used to promote racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, misogynistic and homophobic views that target communities, put people’s safety at risk and undermine Canada’s social cohesion or democracy.”

The sweeping and ambiguous standard is clearly intended to chill speech and allow the government the broadest possible scope of powers over speech. It is the codification of the type of ambiguous speech codes used on college campuses.

The timing for the condemnation of Cuba’s free speech policies could not be worse. As the statement went out, images of protesters trampled by police horses were triggering outrage in Ottawa. Yet, Trudeau has always relied on a largely compliant and supportive media in cracking down on conservative speech or dissenting views.

Trudeau caused an uproar when he condemned members of Parliament questioning his powers as supporting Nazis. Trudeau later refused to apologize for his comments.

The sense of impunity by Trudeau is understandable. The media has largely echoed his attacks on the truckers and supported his use of these powers despite the clear threat to free speech and associational rights. We have a de facto state media where the government reasonably expects media and social media to reinforce its message — and effectively silence its critics.  To raise questions about these measures is to invite attack.

The response to the Canada crackdown is particularly striking. When mounted officers were shown holding off undocumented migrants at the border, the media went into a collective condemnation of photos that falsely suggested that officers were wipping migrants with their riding straps. This false claim was amplified by President Joe Biden who promise (before any investigation) to punish the officers. (The Administration continues to this day to refuse to release the results of its investigation or to clear these officers). The fact that people fell around a mounted unit does not make the Canadian police the new Cossacks. However, the same was true for the customs officers who actually appear to have been falsely accused.

The fact is that the government always had the power to clear these roads. Trudeau wanted to use the crisis to crackdown on political opponents by threatening funding and chilling supporters. The media has again assisted in this effort by using hacked information to name some of those who are donors. While Twitter barred discussion of the Hunter Biden laptop story before the election on clearly false grounds of hacking, Twitter is allowing such hacked information to be used against supporters of the truckers.

The personal information of roughly 90,000 donors was leaked after hackers reportedly compromised the accounts of GiveSendGo late Sunday. Media figures reportedly posted the hacked list to facilitate the harassment. There is still no word of an FBI investigation into the hacking. In the meantime, donors report being harassed and doxxed by supporters of the Trudeau government and its crackdown on the truckers. It is an organized attempt that parallels the efforts of the Trudeau government.

While Canada is not sending away people for 20 years, it is clearly seeking to use these powers to chill the exercise of free speech. The millions of frozen contributions for the truckers could have been used to support trucker families or activities other than the blockades. The government now could use such powers to shutdown any political group in the name of public safety.

The Canadian government has assembled a blacklist of citizens to have their accounts frozen while blocking support for the movement. It is all meant to intimidate those who want to speak and associate freely. That does not make Canada the new Cuba. However, it also does not make Canada the true north for guiding other nations on the freedom of speech.

189 thoughts on “Oh Canada: Trudeau’s Government Condemns Cuba Over Free Speech As Canada Cracks Down on Free Speech”

  1. ‘Romanian MEP Cristian Terhes absolutely mops the floor with PM Justin Trudeau in Brussels this week over how he’s handling the Ottawa Freedom Convoy 2022 protests.

    “He’s exactly like a tyrant, a dictator. He’s like Ceaușescu in Romania,” said Terhes.’

  2. ‘I have spent 12 days live streaming from Ottawa. I did not see one shred of violence until the police showed up.’

    ~@thevivafrei

    1. Apparently police are now going after business owners that remained open during the protest. But don’t worry, @JustinTrudeau said he would respect the Charter of Rights while invoking the Emergencies Act. The destruction of the fabric of Canadian society, right before our eyes. @thevivafrei

      The police tried to get into the Iconic Cafe, a small business that commited the crime of serving coffee to the truckers, to arrest the owners. They were scared off by a citizen live streamer, for now I’m on the scene and will there when the police come back. @Ranting4Canada
      #TrudeauHasGotToGo

      1. This morning Police tried to trespass on to the Iconic Cafe in down town Ottawa. Now, they are closed. They even tried to open the door illigally but they couldn’t. Police still is out side of the cafe. @salmansima
        #TrudeauFailedCanada

        _________________

        *There is video of the police trying to get into the above mentioned coffee cafe….to get in so they can arrest the owners….for serving coffee to people the police have deemed “protestors” and therefore they are targeted “enemies of the state”. It is tragic and frightening to see Ottawa police-turned-thugs and their tyranny against peaceful citizens. This is happening in Ottawa. A police state. This is Trudeau’s Canada today.

  3. The same happens with Progressives in America. They have all these wonderful thoughts of humanity, but when it comes to their own people…they do the opposite. EX: Look at how the Progressives are falling over backwards in the USA for illegal aliens over American citizens. WHO are they working for, because it sure as heck isn’t the American people???

    2. “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil,” (Eph. 6:11).

    3. “a single spark can start a prairie fire” ~ Mao Tse-Tung, 1953

      “a single spark can start a prairie fire” ~ Truckers Freedom Convoy, 2022

      1. Can we all begin to see why ‘driver-less’ cars and trucks is a thing the powers-that-be would like to become the ‘new normal’? Along with a ‘cashless’ society?

        1. Driverless vehicles and cashless society will remove all leverage from the working middle class and give all power and control to the ruling elites –as we see being done by Trudeau and Freeland in Canada by freezing bank accounts, seizing financial assets of the truckers, the protestors, and their supporters.

          The truckers just proved to the ruling elites the urgency of moving forward in both regards.

          1. And when this comes to America, what good is the Second Amendment against this kind of government tyranny (freezing bank accounts, seizing GoFundMe donations, etc) we see happening in Trudeau’s Canada?

            1. Criminalize peaceful protest. Criminalize fundraising. Criminalize freedom of speech. Criminalize freedom of association. Ignore due process. What
              @JustinTrudeau, @fordnation, @ottawapolice are doing to peace-loving Canadians is pure state-terrorism. #TrudeauStain #ShameOnTrudeau

              @thevivafrei

    1. I learned that the misreport of a bicycle “thrown at the horses” was actually a mobility scooter which a horse couldn’t avoid.

      1. Which begs the question, why would Trudeau’s cavalry goon squads ride right through a crowd of peaceful protestors risking any bodily harm to innocent bystanders at all???

      2. btw, Chrystia Freeland is the granddaughter of an *actual Nazi* and she is on record sayind they plan to make some of their ’emergency power grab’ permanent. An actual Nazi descendant said this from inside Trudeau’s parliament. Pray for Canada.

          1. I didn’t pose that anonymous question, but there are reports and apparently video showing she was knocked or nudged over by a police horse. There will be a lot of confusion at this stage, and a lot of lying..

            Nobody is now saying she threw her scooter at a horse. Probably couldn’t pick it up.

              1. Could well be. I have only read differing accounts and haven’t watched the video. Saying she was trampled by the horse seems clearly excessive and saying she threw anything at a horse seems like a deliberate official lie.

              2. By the way, some horses have been trained to bite and trample when in combat, destriers of times past are an example. I doubt police horses in North America are trained to do it but I don’t really know. It seems all too likely that horses in other parts of the world are still trained that way. In any event it is a mistake to say horses will never do it on purpose–some do.

                1. Young, the modern version of that training is called dressage. The horse is entirely under the control of the rider, only kicking out upon command. The commands are quite subtle to the naive watcher.
                  I am dubious about training horses to bite.
                  In any case, horses won’t step on anything but solid support. This makes it most difficult to lead a horse onto a small ferryboat which tips a little when the horse’s weight begins to bear down. On the other hand, I’ve seen a cow being transported on a small rowboat just big enough for the couple to row with the cow standing in the stern; this to reach a small patch of grass at the side of a fjord in Norway.

                  1. David,

                    I guess your message is “don’t use cows for destriers in tournaments.”

                    And, actually NO. Dressage is training [literally] for exhibition riding mostly but is distinct from training a horse to manage cattle and also distinct from training a horse for combat.

                    You have used one French word to essentially mix training for ballet and training for boxing. Noting that both are ‘training’ doesn’t mean that they are the same. Training for weight lifting is different too.

                    1. Many of the movements in modern dressage are those which were practiced by horsemen in close combat.

                      And you might be surprised how closely dance forms resemble martial arts movements…

                    2. David “Many of the movements in modern dressage are those which were practiced by horsemen in close combat.”

                      +++

                      Now you just getting silly. Of course some movements will be similar…it is a horse and a rider.

                      But I don’t think modern dressage includes training to attack other people and horses as combat horses were trained. Like ATC you are addicted to ‘last wordism’ no matter how childish the last word may be.

                      Probably comes from a classroom where the instructor always gets the last word no matter how absurd…grades you know.

                      Training a horse to prance prettily before a crowd is different from training a horse to stomp the crowd into a bloody mess.

                      But you refuse to see it.

                    3. Young, kicking the foreleg straight out to the side is unnatural for a horse and must be trained. It is a combat maneuver to remove an assailant on foot while the rider is engaged on the opposite side. This maneuver is a standard part of modern dressage. It isn’t taught in other forms of horsemanship.

                      P.S. My sister is very good at dressage, has her own arena and keeps 2–3 horses just for this purpose.

  6. Ridicule is the most potent weapon these days if you can get it published. I look forward to the recreation of the Tienanmen Square confrontation except with an elderly woman with a walker wearing a Canadian flag on her back confronting a tank with Justin Trudeau sticking out of the turret.

  7. All this is happening over what? Mandates requiring free people to get vaccinated, with experimental vaccines, when the vaccines themselves are no longer effective against the current variant. Makes ZERO sense. The FORCE being used makes no sense except to understand there is another agenda driving this.

    1. ‘I told you months ago he (Trudeau) was a fascist psychopath. Some said I was exaggerating. Was I?’ ~Maxime Bernier

      No, Maxime, you were absolutely correct.

      Rise up, Canada. Now or never.

    2. I think a lot of money may shift out of Canadian banks. I would be closing accounts if I lived in Canada.

  9. Apparently Trudeau has suspended parliament.

    I think Charles I did that once and after a bit of give and take they sorted him.

    1. Other reports are that parliament suspended itself. If true, I can see why they want to go home. They aren’t doing anything while Trudeau wrecks the country.

      1. Trudeau suspended Parliament on Friday along with the permission of the other party leaders because of the police action outside of the house of commons. What does effectively did was allow the emergencies act to continue through the weekend, allowing the police to clear out the protesters. It also of course gave the party leaders from the conservative and bloc Quebecois parties cover to allow this to happen despite publicly being against it.

        1. Thanks. I couldn’t see the motive for MPs to acquiesce in this. CYA makes perfect sense. Sounds like the parliament is full of Mitt Romneys.

          I came across a photo of Trudeau kneeling to BLM to protest police violence. He seems to enjoy police violence now.

          I don’t know who this is but he makes good points. https://youtu.be/lC4tlUkAP6o

  11. Turley warns:

    “We have a de facto state media where the government reasonably expects media and social media to reinforce its message — and effectively silence its critics. To raise questions about these measures is to invite attack.”

    Exactly! Fox News, Newsmax and One America News Network reinforced Trump’s false narratives when he was in power, e.g., the election was stolen claim, for which they are presently being sued for defamation for their reckless advocacy journalism!

    When CNN, MSNBC, NYT and WaPo raised questions about the factual basis of this claim, they were attacked as “fake news.”

    Thank you Professor for correctly calling out this problem on the Right.

    1. I like how you did a liberal/democrat thing there and projected what the left and the gov’t funded big media has done. You support and trust sources like CNN? All the fascists do.

  12. You can’t have your freedom without war. War is a beautiful thing if you have your freedom in the end. If you enjoy gore and horror, then why wait for zombie crawls each Halloween when you can see the real thing in a war? If you want your freedom so badly, pick up a rifle and shoot your oppressors. Do you have the guts?

    1. That’s terrible.

      Of course you can have freedom without war. It requires courage and wisdom and integrity, consistently applied, to maintain it. It’s only after a long stretch of inattention or acquiescence that it risks being lost to predation.

    2. “War is a beautiful thing…”

      – Anny
      _____

      You must have been in a pillow fight at the g– bar.
      _______________________________________

      “War is Hell

      Combat is a Mother——!”

      – Enlisted Club Bunker, 25th Division, Cu Chi, Vietnam

  13. As I suspected, not a single horse “trampled on people”. Horses are careful where they put their hooves. People were knocked down by being shoved into the moving horses and riders.

    1. David B Benson, The woman trampled by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police died at the hospital. Her name was Roberta Paulsen. I watched it happen on live stream when the RCMP intentionally rode through the crowd where the protesters were packed and did not have a lot of room to move, but the RCMP plowed through anyway and did not stop. It was shocking to watch. Another protester wearing a brown coat was knocked down by a horse and was trampled, but I can not find reports to confirm injuries. The RCMP were removed from the protests after the incident. There is a video you can watch on twitter @VigilantFox. It’s not the same live stream I watched, but it does confirm what happened. The Canadian protesters have been very peaceful and they are unarmed.

      1. Is there confirmation that the woman died?

        They weren’t just any horses, they were Clydesdales. Enormous work horses. Ordered by Trudeau to march on snowy and icy streets right through a packed crowd of peaceful protestors. What a disgrace.

      2. LChandler, “trampled”. Possibly, but not by being stepped on by horses. Might be kicked by a horse hoof.
        Knocked down, certainly. That isn’t being stepped on.

        I’d have to see a definitive video before changing what I have just stated, based on decades of experience with horses.

        2. The New York Times article just out states that a horse stepped on one person. An attached vertical orientation picture shows a man one the ground with a horse hind hoof positioned just after a kick to his face. Step on, no; kick, yes.

          But more, the attached video shows that the police had truncheons. Those do serious bodily damage with even a small swing.

          1. “the attached video shows that the police had truncheons. Those do serious bodily damage with even a small swing.”

            And there is plenty of video showing the Trudeau goon squads using those “truncheons” against not only peaceful protestors, but also journalists filming on scene.

          2. Justin Trudeau in a nutshell: takes a knee against police brutality, kneeling in solidarity with violent BLM protestors in June 2020….then goes on to conduct police brutality against peaceful trucker protesters on Feb. 18, 2022. And then lies about it all.

            While hiding out in his secure location and tweeting about the CCP Genocide Olympics.

            #Blackface Hitler

              1. “As police and “Freedom Convoy” demonstrators faced off in downtown Ottawa on early Saturday morning, police turned physical towards the protest line, deploying riot suppression devices and striking multiple protesters.

                On Saturday, the gridlock continued as police, who formed a line in front of the protesters, attempted to push back against demonstrators gathered at the city center.

                Amid loud pops, Rebel News’s Quebec-based reporter Alexa Lavoie was directly hit by police during the melee, injuring her.”

                PHOTOS in article.

                https://www.rebelnews.com/breaking_rebel_news_journalist_alexa_lavoie_attacked_by_ottawa_police

                1. And directly hit by police” means that the police had truncheons, those batons, clubs, weapons, whatever you call them — Trudeau’s goon squad used those clubs, the ones that “do serious bodily damage with even a small swing” against peaceful protestors and journalists!

                  1. And when not using batons against peaceful protestors, Trudeau’s goon squads were using undue force against them, both kicking and kneeing protestors being held down by them. And then blocking, preventing any *real* journalists from filming.

                    It is frightening to witness what is happening in Canada today.

                    Those world leaders who do not condemn this brutality against citizens peacefully exercising civil disobedience in Canada, are the ones planning to use it themselves against their own citizens.

                    Look to Macron’s France for yet more evidence.

                    Why the silence, Joe Biden?

              1. “Police say”

                “Ottawa police say no one was seriously injured by the use of horses. But there remains some question about whether, as police said Friday, a bicycle was thrown at one of them.

                When pressed for details that it was indeed a bicycle — there have been reports that it was perhaps a knocked-over wheelchair — Bell said he would have to check.”

                __________________

                “When pressed….Bell said he would have to check.”

                It was ON VIDEO Mr. Bell. There was no bicycle.

              2. “The woman who was trampled by Trudeau’s officers is not dead. Thank god. Her shoulder was dislocated and she is in hospital. Care to correct the “no injuries” statement, OttawaPolice?” @therealkeean

                (This tweet includes a photo of the trampled woman IN the hospital)

          4. David,

            You are and the other leftists are focusing too much on what the horses did and not on what Trudeau did.

            Trudeau would have been outraged if we used horses to control BLM crowds.

            But he is actually eager to loose horses and armored thugs with clubs and guns on people who don’t want to take an experimental drug known to cause bad side effects and now known to have limited value.

            In every bleeding heart leftist there is a monster ready to show with clubs, dogs, horses, gas and bullets.

            1. The same people protecting Trudeau and the horses trampling innocent citizens who were peacefully protesting, were shaming border agents for using “whips” on illegals sneaking into our country, when actually they were REINS.

  14. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyTbxCohs78

    A video made only 6 years ago. Presented here as juxtaposition to what Trudeau has instituted.

    With some new lyrics:
    “Please, please, explain to me,
    How this all has come to be,
    Our leaders have somehow all lost their minds.
    Did we say we’re creeping towards totalitarianism?
    And the stamping on of citizens
    With fear!

    Let’s go to Canada, let’s leave today,
    Protest in Canada, let’s speak anyway!”

  15. They Didn’t Like George Floyd Demonstrations

    But Republicans Are Keen On Trucker Convoys

    In the wake of racial justice protests following the murder of George Floyd, a wave of Republican lawmakers supported legislation to punish protesters who blocked roads. Now some of those same Republicans are supporting similar tactics from conservative trucker convoys protesting against vaccine mandates.

    Last year, the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, signed an anti-rioting law that stiffened penalties for protesters who blocked roads and even gave some legal protection to drivers who ran them over. Yet DeSantis has thrown his support behind conservative trucker convoys using similar tactics to protest against vaccine mandates.

    The Texas senator Ted Cruz told Politico he sent a letter to Federal Trade Commission demanding an investigation into GoFundMe. The Ohio congressman Jim Jordan similarly decried GoFundMe.

    Many Republican politicians have also expressed enthusiasm and support for US truckers seeking to emulate the Canadian protests on US soil. A convoy of truckers is set to begin a protest drive to Washington later this month, in a move some fear could bring the same kind of disruption that has gripped the Canadian capital, Ottawa.

    The Kentucky senator Rand Paul, who has criticized the disruptive tactics of racial justice protesters in the US, is “all for” the disruption of a trucker convoy. “I hope the truckers do come to America. I hope they clog up cities,” Paul told the Daily Signal, a publication of the conservative thinktank the Heritage Foundation.

    Jared Holt, a researcher of extremism, said the double standard by rightwing politicians was part of a strategy by Republicans to favor seizing any political opportunities to disrupt a Joe Biden presidency, rather than choose to be consistent in ideology .

    Edited From:

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/18/republicans-trucker-convoys-coronavirus-covid-mandates

    1. I agree the truckers shouldn’t block roads. They could line the roads and the long lines of parked trucks and tractors would still be visually compelling.

    2. “They Didn’t Like George Floyd Demonstrations
      But Republicans Are Keen On Trucker Convoys”

      Anonymous—– BLM and Antifa and supporters trashed, burned, and totally destroyed state, county, Federal, and private properties and businesses, murdered Police, shot innocents, threw chemicals into policemen’s eyes— blinding them, terrorized citizens, savagely assaulted citizens, caused a young cop to be permanently paralyzed……to name a few things…..oh, and mostly WITHOUT masks.
      I understand that facts and truth are kryptonite to you lefties, but honestly, your insanity appears to be irreversible.

      1. This time it is the Ottawa police who are beating peaceful protestors. Lots of video footage going around showing undue force being used against protestors that we would NEVER know about because the Trudeau government and its bought off media are all flat out lying about everything.

      2. Cindy, outside of bathroom graffiti in W H that poster doesn’t know much of anything. He doesn’t understand the difference between peaceful protest and violent protest. He has problems elsewhere but we won’t talk about them.

    3. Oh, yeah, that pillar of the community, George Floyd, was a real “cause,” wudn’t he?

      What did his banner say, “Dependence and parasitism forever; God save the welfare check, affirmative action, public housing and forced busing, oh, and WIC, SNAP, TANF, HAMP, HARP, HUD, HHS, etc.,…am I done yet?”

      No, it was the content of his “character” not the color of his skin, am I right, I’m right aren’t I?

      God Bless the man.

  16. It is now Crystal Clear the Media in Canada and the United States are proCommunism!! There is no rational argument that can be made to refute that assertion!

  18. Some day, perhaps soon, some very technologically savvy persons are going to respond to the complicit media and social media by hitting them where it hurts the most: pulling their ‘plug’ at their Servers, removing them from accessibility.

    1. Guess what race this perp is? The article does not report it but you know the drill. He is an ex-convict who’d been arrested and bailed on a firearms charge days before Spicuzza’s killing, according to Daily Mail, which the Post Gazette does not mention below.

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10530535/Dashcam-footage-reveals-Uber-driver-38-pleaded-robber-shot-dead.html

      Sickening

      https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2022/02/17/uber-driver-killed-christi-spicuzza-monroeville-police-arrest-calvin-crew-homicide-robbery-charges/stories/202202170148

      “Uber driver pleaded for her life before she was killed in Monroeville, dashcam video shows”

      An Uber driver begged for her life and pleaded that she had four children before a Penn Hills man fatally shot her during what investigators believe was a robbery attempt, according to a transcript of dashcam video. Allegheny County police on Wednesday night charged Calvin Crew, 22, in the killing of 38-year-old Christi Spicuzza, whose body was found in Monroeville last weekend. Mr. Crew is charged with homicide, robbery and tampering with evidence.

  20. Many of the links in this article are behind paywalls. Turley is absolutely correct free speech is not so free. Soon only the well-off will be able to afford it!

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